and retrieved memory from a night shot of
Midtown Manhattan, taken from the 38th
floor of the Renzo Piano-designed New York
Times building. The total glass weight was a
half-ton, placed on brushed stainless steel. An
international group of neural scientists use the
laboratory, where the conference table is the
hub for exchanging new ideas. Reconfiguring
Memory is an artistic affirmation that the best
science is not conducted in isolation and
through a microscope, but often through
collaboration and the exchange of ideas.

IS: In your photography practice, why did
you take to shooting at night?

SS: My fascination with urban grids is heightened at night. Architecture and streets are
reshaped in darkness. Color is reduced to
black and white, negative and positive. A new
urban system reflects a differently shaped city.

In recent years I have worked with physical
and digital memory, often comparing the grid
in the brain to an urban map.

IS: Tell us about your Engram drawings:

SS: Engrams are a hypothetical means by
which memory traces are stored as biophysical
or biochemical changes in the brain (and other
neural tissue) in response to external stimuli.

The Engram Drawings are urban palimpsests
systematically hand drawn with ink on draft
film ( 60 x 110). Following a radical digital
reduction of content I examine my own
memory of the scene I had photographed
by a refined repetition of geometries. Various
memories spring up; forgetfulness makes
its mark. The act of drawing brings back a
physical methodical recording of the digitally
eliminated memory.

ABOVE LEFT TO RIGHT Galaxy Glass & Stone prepping some of Sadé’s pieces for installation; an example of Sadé’s
Engram drawings, black marker on paper, a deconstruction of her photography; a close-up of Imprints.

BELOW Guests engage and connect with each other and the installation “Imprints” in the reception area of the
Cozen O’Connor law firm in Philadelphia.